Accessibility win, but in a confusing way...

[jackandahat]

So I'm watching the DVD of Bond, Die Another Day. One of the commentaries is Pierce Brosnan and Rosamund Pike. For the first 45 minutes you've just got Pierce on his own - and it's subtitled, so I'm in love.

Then Rosamund shows up. And I'm thinking, I can see her words, why can't I hear her? That's because apparently, he's being played in the left earphone and she's being played in the right. I'm sure this is supposed to be some trick about placement or something, but what it actually means for me is I can either hear her, or him, not both of them. (Deaf in the right ear)

Thankfully the subtitles mean I can still follow what they're both saying, which I'm very glad for, yay subtitles. But I've never met something that was quite this distinct about left/right.

ETA: Yep, they win, all the special features on Disc 2 (this is the UK version) are subtitled.

Comments

[nafs]

Subtitled *commentaries*? That *is* love.

I've never heard commentaries do the right-left thing but I have a few albums that I've had to make my computer rip as mono because I'm missing so much that goes on on the right side. (The Beatles Mono collection that came out last September made my *life* omg)

[jackandahat]

Oh yes - I was stunned, I found it by accident - I was trying to turn on the film subtitles and went "...wait, that's not what the film is saying", examined it closer, and they have subtitles on the actual film, subtitles on the commentary with the two actors, and the commentary with the director and producer. Serious win!

The music thing can be weird - if I'm listening on headphones then Letters To Cleo - I Got Time is an instrumental, because the vocals are all on the right hand side. It's weird.

[jesse_the_k]

Super news on the commentaries: is this a Brit edition? There was a U.S. lawsuit on this issue, and 2009 discs I've rented w DVD commentaries I want to watch have been CCed/subtitled.

[jackandahat]

Yep - this is the "Special Edition" according to the case, and it's the one in England. I don't yet know if the special features are subtitled, this was just Disc 1 with the film on it.

[pauraque]

Yeah, I really wish they would have mono options on everything. My girlfriend is deaf in one ear and relatively low-hearing in the other, so she prefers to listen to things in headphones if possible so she can turn it up and not bother others. Just doesn't work if the stereo effect is too extreme.

Hell, even as an average-hearing person, I'd probably choose the mono option if I had it. I like to listen in headphones too and I don't need to hear every single car going from left to right, kind of annoying really.

Yay about the subtitled commentary though!

[jackandahat]

I did wonder what hearing people thought of it, if it was good/neutral/annoying - I imagine there's a range of preferences.

[softestbullet]

That happens to me with some songs, too! Some of them are practically unrecognizable, and I was so confused until I realized half the music was missing. (I sometimes have hearing trouble, and always have broken headphones.)

[jackandahat]

For some reason, my iPod only plays out of the left side. Which obviously doesn't matter, but it means I have to check my earbuds are in the right ear. Weird technology!fail!

[codeman38]

I love it when DVDs have subtitles for the commentary. First disc I ever remember seeing that did that was The Incredibles— oddly, the Region 1 version has the commentary subtitled but the Region 2 doesn't!

One nice thing for me is that I can read significantly faster than I can comprehend speech. And my DVD player shows subtitles even in fast-forward. So I can actually watch the commentary in half the time it would take if I had to listen to it.

[jackandahat]

Ha! That's a neat trick!

[exor674]

Totally randomly: if you use headphones, you can get a stereo -> mono adapter, you should be able to fit a standard headphone connector in that, and have both channels mixed on both sides.

[jackandahat]

Ooo! I have never heard of this, so thank you.

[pauraque]

That's news to me too. Are there such adapters that work with USB headsets?

[exor674]

Depending on what kind it is -- some USB headsets are USB to a little box, where you plug in a standard 1/8" connector -- those *should* work -- some are USB all the way into the headphones themselves, and those won't -- there is probably a way to do it in software though, just none easy that I know of off the top of my head.

[treeowl]

Probably not easy, no, but I bet you could hack on PulseAudio a bit to do that, if you use Linux.